Fixing My Sons Sleeping Patterns

I think the afternoon nap is too late, too long or both. I'd try putting him down by 5 at the latest and not let him sleep past 6 or longer than 90 minutes. see how it works and adjust as needed. Also many babies are ready to switch to a 1 nap schedule around 12 to 15 months. So if you haven't figured it out in a month or so you could try 1 early afternoon nap.

The Sleep Lady method (http://www.sleeplady.com/) really worked for us. We started using it when our daughter was about 9 or 10 months old. So you can definitely use it at 11 months. Our daughter wasn't ready to go to one nap til she was 15 months old. But every baby is different.

Good luck!

If you want a resource, you can try the No Cry Sleep Solution.

I feel for you! I know what that's like. My son used to sleep throughout the night. But for the past several months, he will wake up at 2-3 am and play for about 2 hours before going back to sleep at around 5am! He'll sleep until noon. Then he naps for about an hour, play for several hours and then nap again early evening. Then he's up until 2am or later!

We've made several attempts to adjust his schedule. What works is keeping him up longer at night (after reducing naps) and taking him to bed earlier. It's getting better but we have to keep it up for it to work. I'm a WAHM and often stay up late working. He insists on staying up with me a lot!

Eleven months is when we had to move my first son to one nap a day for the very same reason. He was sleeping waaay too much in the day! Once we did this things got better. Our twins, who are 16 months now, used to nap twice a day at that age, but they would generally have their first nap between 9 and 9:30 and the second at around 1. I think your second nap is too late. At that age they need to be up for about four hours before bed time so they go to bed at a reasonable hour. Try making your naps earlier and if that doesn't work, then try to move him to one nap. Our twins are sleepers so when we moved them to one nap we had to do it earlier than I did with my first son. So I tried to keep them up as long as possible and end up feeding them lunch at around 11:30 to have them in bed for their nap right after. My first son could go through the morning and not need a nap until sometime around 1 p.m. He never needed as much sleep as the twins, though. Try reading Healthy Sleep Habits for a Happy Baby if you need a book - just don't take everything in it as gospel because every baby is different and some babies don't respond to the methods listed (my first didn't and the other two are text-book babies). As for the morning nap, make sure your son gets up by 8 a.m. and I'm betting you can put him down at 9 again. Or if you move to one nap, I'd do the same. If you want to get him on a schedule, you'll likely have to wake him up some mornings. Good luck!

I agree with Rachel Y. Shorten or eliminate his afternoon nap. Then put him to bed by 7 or 8. It will take time for him to get used to the new schedule but he will adjust if you're consistent.

You could also keep his morning nap to an hour and then put him down for an afternoon nap earlier, say around 3 and keep that to an hour.

Experiment with a schedule. Stick to it for a week or two to see if it helps and if it doesn't alter the schedule in a small way and try that for a couple of weeks. What is important is consistency in a firm but kind way.

I'm another vote to switching to one nap. It seems like what works for most parents/kids is to push that first nap later (to after lunch around noon) and have that be the only nap of the day. For my kids they both seemed to be tired in the morning, but then they would fight the afternoon nap and get tired later, like your guy, and be sleep at 4 or 5 pm, which is just too late! We do bedtime at 8 pm, which means that we start a bath at 7, wash (and calm) in the bath, brush teeth, read books and then get into bed with the lights out. So my suggestion is to plan more outings so that he's occupied (read: not cranky) around his usual morning nap time. Indoor play parks are good. You might be sad about losing some free time during the day, but you'll be soooo happy that you're not staying up until 1 am putting him to bed!

The other suggestions were good. I'd also wake him up at 7 every morning so he's ready to nap earlier and then shorten the afternoon nap so you can move the bedtime back. Waking him up at a consistent time will help make the other sleep times more consistent. FWIW, 11-12 months is when my kids transitioned to 1 nap. But my kids don't seem to need tons of sleep. :)